Journey to Jodhpur

Tuesday, June 19,2012 Jodhpur, Rajasthan, India Distance driven: 1,666 KM / 1041 miles. Today was mostly a day of driving. We had one stop at Pokran which is a preserved, but somewhat dilapidated fort. A “guide” showed us around, which mostly consisted of trying to see some interesting things covered in dust behind dirty windows. There was also a coin slot above each window and there was an assortment of money, business cards, and passport photos scattered amongst and sometimes over the artifacts.Still it was nice to be able to stretch our legs before we proceeded on with the journey.Most of the roads we’ve traveled on have been better than I was expecting. The highway from Delhi to Amritsar was horrendous, but around Rajasthan we’ve mostly been driving on well maintained two lane highways. Often when we get into larger towns the road degrades (or disappears) and occasionally there are some rough spots as there were coming in to Jodhpur this afternoon. Kelly is still glad she brought only sports bras!Our hotel in Jodhpur, the Devi Bhawan, is a complete contrast to where we stayed in Jaisalmer. We are in a suburban area of town with a beautiful garden complete with lots of colorful songbirds. There is also a nice swimming pool, of which we made good use.We went for dinner at a restaurant called On the Rocks and ate al fresco in a rock garden where the boys were able to have a meat (chicken) dish.India is supposed to have three million gods. Amongst them surely there must be one dedicated to air conditioning. If so, I’d like to know what we did to offend it. Although it had worked earlier in the day, the boys’ room a/c gave out just at they were going to sleep. Aaron figured they could do without, which was a mistake, and in the middle of the night he came to our room wanting to camp on the floor. Some unanswered calls to reception were followed by a visit only to find two men asleep on the veranda. Hunting around I couldn’t find anyone else so I woke them and they gave us the key to another room so Ben and Aaron could sleep there.The next morning, it was hotter and more humid in their original room than it was outside!